


50 kisses

by Emeka



Category: Ogre Battle (Video Games)
Genre: Drabble Collection, Established Relationship, Friends With Benefits, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:14:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25694863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emeka/pseuds/Emeka
Relationships: Denam Pavel | Denim Powell/Albeleo | Robert Rudlum
Kudos: 2





	50 kisses

1-

He turns and feels soft skin against his, the slight pressure of two bodies meeting and nearly occupying the same space. Something presses against his temple and leaves it warm and tingling.

"Awake?"

For a moment, no, he'd still been blissfully unaware of where he is in the grand scheme of things, and what all it is that he needs to do. There's a busy day ahead of him. The moment he remembers a weight comes back over his body with the memory, and can't help a sigh from forcefully leaving his chest. 

"Another busy day," the other body agrees. "It's still early enough you can leave unnoticed."

That early? Most days it's necessary for him to get up before everyone else, but it's only when he stays here that it's still dark outside. It's not that he's ashamed, of who he's with, or what he's doing. Well. It's a little embarrassing. But mostly it's just a matter of privacy. No one else needs to know, so why should they?

He sighs, in both thanks and another bout of exasperation. For a moment, he could have been anywhere else. He could have been home. He has nothing else much to want these days.

2-

It's warm in here. Even when they're traveling through the tundra, it's always warm by the time they finish. He wonders how many times it's been since the first. And surely all the going and switching around in time still counts. He has kept the rest of his memories, in his mind and body, the scars left on it, and the muscle he's built over the... years, must be, by now. So he's far from a virgin, from any way he can look at it. Strange thought. He's not _innocent_ \---he knew men did such things, maybe especially under periods of stress. He just hadn't thought he'd do the same thing.

It all comes back in the afterglow. During sex itself, the awkwardness, when it's there (less and less now) reaches a crescendo then fades away as he acclimates again to what they're doing. They lay together, not on or cuddled against. Safely for a moment back in their own spaces.

Despite the awkwardness... he's human. And doing this act means something, even when the reason they give has nothing to do with any kind of lovey-dovey thing. And he's not lovey-dovey. But he still feels something.

He rolls over onto his belly, shortening the small space between that marks off their bodies again. A small press of his lips, barely a kiss really, is all he can fight through to give. He tastes warmth beneath his mouth too, that fills it up like steam. A soft laugh is his response.

3-

"I can always tell when you're anxious, by now."

Denim half-heartedly crooks a smile. "That's because it's when you see me most often up close." He wonders what signs he gives. It's better not to show it at all, surely, in his position, but maybe there's something he can't quite help, like the stiffness or lean of his posture, or something his mouth or eyebrows do when he's not paying attention. "Have you heard?"

"The report on Lanselot? Yes." There's usually something of a grin on his face, but it's gone now. "Are you going to see him this time as well?"

"I have to see it with my own eyes."

"It'll be difficult. You're prepared?"

"You don't need to worry over me so. And Catiua will be with me."

"All she ever does is make you _more_ anxious." Rudlum has his cheek in his palm only an instant before he steps away. 

The truth in the words, something he has thought bitterly himself on many a night, gives him more irritation than if there had been none at all. He loves her still. And while she has grown, she had been both needy and stubborn, oft at his cost. "Don't talk about her like that."

"Stings, does it. That's alright. If she leaves you again... you know where to turn to."

He has no will in him to be more than irritated, or to fight further, with what already lays ahead of him. He accepts the kiss, placed near the corner of his eye.

4-

Following a long battle, everyone's vitality has run down not only in the physical sense, but also the mental one. What it means is that he must tend to his wounds himself with medicine instead of magic. Even his own reserves of healing artes have run dry. Out in the field they can typically set up stations for such things and in private is how he prefers to tend to himself. His wincing makes him self-conscious. It reminds him how so much more convenient it is to be able to heal immediately... not to mention painless.

That doesn't mean he's guaranteed privacy. He'd been pretty well disillusioned of that a few weeks in command. When the flap rustles he sighs internally, but without any particular surprise or disappointment. If no one has been hurt too badly---or better, died---he can still count knowing that as a good thing.

But it's always Vyce or Canopus who brings him reports like that. Not Rudlum. "Oh," he says mildly. "Were you hurt? In the back lines?"

"'Oh'? Were you expecting another? And don't sass me, boy." He comes close to sit on his knees before him, with an expression of interest. "I saw the blow you took. Quite fascinating how much blood you can lose in an instant. You didn't look like you even felt it."

"I usually don't, until later." Until now.

"Are you done cleaning it out? I'll bandage it off for you."

"Thank you."

Rudlum ties it off over the wound, putting pressure on the gouge itself. Earlier, as Denim cleaned it, he saw the bloody-white of his radius in the red meat. It pulls open too much to close easily on its own, but in an hour or so, someone will have recovered enough to be able to heal it that way. The bandage immediately spots through with blood.

"Do you need anything for pain?"

"It's bearable." Familiar. He has suffered like this, and worse than this, so many times that even while it stabs through with every movement, it doesn't cause anything that he would call _real_ pain. A year ago, he'd call this real pain. The difference isn't that he's gotten tougher, or that the pain itself has diluted. He's simply gotten used to it.

"What about a kiss to make it better?" Rudlum asks. His thumbs stroke gently on either side of the spotted trail of blood.

"I'm not a child."

He laughs. "I am _well_ aware of that. After last night--"

"S-stop. Fine. Do what you want." 

"You embarrass too easily still. Here..." His lips meet against the red, so gently Denim doesn't even feel any added weight on his arm, less so even the silken touch of his mouth. The limb tingles in response even so, all the way up until his face burns with it.

5-

"You got it good this time, didn't you?"

Denim scoffs slightly. Even making that much noise sets his bruised ribs to creaking. He's been on a bedroll since the last battle ended, with everyone coming and going every other minute to fuss on him like he'd broken every bone in his body. Damned octopus. The worst part of it hadn't been the pain, but the blow that knocked him under the water, and dizzied him so badly he was in a panic to right himself. He came up gagging and choking on water as he dragged himself to ground.

“Where all does it hurt?”

“Where doesn’t it?”

“Is there truly nowhere?”

He considers it. “My eyelids. Barely.”

“Then be a good boy,” Rudlum says, not sounding like he’s talking to a child even though the words are fit for one, “and stay still.” Rather, it is low and on the cusp of husky, the way he sounds when they share a tent for the night.

Denim flushes, both at the tone and his body’s automatic reaction to it. He stills, all but for his eyes squeezing shut as Rudlum leans over him. He feels the tickle of his hair on his cheek moments before the gentle press of his lips on one eyelid, then the other.


End file.
